About Me

Australian philosopher, literary critic, legal scholar, and professional writer. Based in Newcastle, NSW. Author of FREEDOM OF RELIGION AND THE SECULAR STATE (2012), HUMANITY ENHANCED (2014), and THE MYSTERY OF MORAL AUTHORITY (2016).

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Voices of Disbelief on its way

Okay, so the deal is that UdoSchuklenk and I will be co-editing a book, provisionally entitled Voices of Disbelief, which will contain 50 to 60 relatively short essays by prominent people explaining why they are not religious believers - why they don't accept the existence of the Abrahamic God, or subscribe to other religious doctrines. The essays will be diverse - philosophical, autobiographical, humorous, something else entirely, or a combination of some or all of the above.

Once the contract is with me, I'll be signing off.

We have an excellent publisher: Blackwell, now part of Wiley-Blackwell, which will have the muscle to distribute the book internationally. I have a wonderful and dedicated co-editor, and we've assembled an enviable list of expected contributors. However, unless any of them want to out themselves here or elsewhere, I won't name names in public just yet. We need to put in some time to talk to them all and make sure they're all happy with the way the project has shaped up.

However, I guess it's fine for me to say that four have already delivered their essays, and that the quality is going to be high if these end up being typical. Indeed, there's no reason for the quality to be anything else, given the calibre of the people involved. (There are a lot of people on the list whose names my regular readers will probably know, without expecting to find them appearing together in a book like this.)

It's all happening, folks. As this comes project to fruition over the next year or so, culminating in publication of the book some time in 2009, I'll say more. Meanwhile, please help us get the word out. We need to start generating a bit of buzz if we can.

All over. Mainly US, UK, Canada, Germany, and Australia. I think that the US and UK are most heavily represented, but there are also quite a few Aussies. Actually if our list continues with no modifications between now and publication we'll have representation from every continent except Antarctica.